Topic: GayStation - Where y'all at?

I’m kinda with @Tasuki. I don’t see a need to add extra labels to gamer. Yet here I am contributing. My thing is, you can have any opinion you want as long you’re respectful. Now this is jokes aside, I think jokes are jokes. I mean people being serious there. You have can have any opinion about whatever being right or wrong. Pro this pro against this whatever. We as people disagree about things all the time on any matter serious or not.
What matters is not attacking each or shoving things down each other’s throats. Being civil about it, and, at the end of the day, still being friends.

@themcnoisy that's brilliant!

@RogerRoger
I agree with you on not being a fan of labels. Fair play to anyone who wants to label themselves. But I have a few issues with them, I often feel a quick label is used to lazily define a person and it comes across as quite dehumanising to me, and for so many, you're just stuck with assumptions and negative connotations for whatever label it happens to be.
I guess it's all part of me being frustrated with how judgemental society can be.

Games, like other artistic media, absolutely have the power to remind people that they aren't abnormal or alone, and that's important. It can simply be as small as putting a smile on someone's face, or as big as saving a life.

I've noticed within wider society that when minority groups take issue with something that is "the acceptable face" of homophobia, racism or any other form of bigotry the viewpoint of the oppressed is more often than not shot down as being unreasonable. Moreover, when someone who is not LGBT says something like "oh, I can't see what's homophobic about that", or "give me examples", it compounds and further perpetuates the issue. Truth is that western society is typically so conditioned to not seeing bigotry that it simply continues. There's no nice, polite or civil way for someone to be a bigot. And as someone who was often the punchline of quite a few jokes, something "being a joke" does not make it any nicer or any more acceptable.

Arguments such as "this has no place in gaming" also allow homophobia (and other forms of bigotry) to perpetuate. It gives a subtle nod - however unwillingly - to people who hold those unsavoury views. I don't doubt that those who have written that such topics shouldn't exist here have done so out of a genuine desire to avoid conflict and nastiness, but it silences LGBT perspectives - and that's wrong. It's in effect the same as when someone says "I have nothing against gay people, I just don't want it right in front of me" (which is clearly a homophobic thing for anyone to say).

We are all human and essentially the same, and in a perfect world it shouldn't matter - but this is sadly a world where every day all sorts of hatred goes on all around us and people are mistreated for being different. So, I think some people label themselves and draw attention to those differences not only because it is an important part of fighting for an equality that is still so elusive in certain places, but because the alternative is staying silent and conforming to society's pre-packaged acceptable view of what they should be. The view where differences are fine as long as people keep shtum and carry on.

@themcnoisy Both parts of that story are brilliant

@mookysam
Well said matey, some good points there.

@themcnoisy
Agreed with everyone here, was great to read that.

What does everyone think about the diversity of protagonists in video games this generation?
I thought last gen on the ps3 was very poor overall, seemed the majority of main characters were young heterosexual white males, most with the same bland personality. But how are we doing now?

@LieutenantFatman I reckon Sony themselves are definitely getting there. Last of Us 2 is going to have an openly gay main character in a relationship which is unheard of in video games. Horizon did a good job of having a female main character that stood on her own two feet and was a total badass. I hope Resi 3 portrays Jill well as I felt they did a great job with Claire last game. Plus, Cyberpunk seems to let you be whatever you want to be, which is totally welcome. It’s a good time just now with genuine progress being made and I hope it continues onto PS5.

Japanese companies are usually better on the "player diversity" front. I don't keep up with Western AAA stuff anymore, but last gen felt like a million games featuring the same angry white dude shooting people, which got old for me quickly. Not as a political thing, mind you (I genuinely don't care about "being represented" in the media I consume), but just because it was dreadfully boring.